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Author Topic: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.  (Read 2131 times)

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Offline laggy

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Dear Addonmakers,

Before I start my list of ideas and suggestions I would like to make it clear how much I value and respect your work. The community addons are what will keep this game alive for a long time, just like they did (and still do) with OFP. Addonmaking is a field where I have very limited experience. I made an island for OFP with the WRPtool and that's about it. What I do have some knowledge about is the usage (or lack of usage) of addons, and this is where I have some input. I think that alot of addons are way too small and limited and the use of them therefore become very specific and insignificant. Often they are also useless without other additional elements. I would say that alot of addons are useless without a fitting environment (island).

My favourite addons have always been COMPLETE mods like: Finnish Defence Forces Mod, BAS Tonal Mod and ECP. Why?

Those addons came in a complete and seemless pack where you had environments (islands) in which new characters (units) could run around and use new stuff (weapons, objects and vehicles). Often the mods also came with additional sounds, music, animations and scripting functions to enhance the gameplay and atmosphere.

This meant that you would have a useful combination of absolutely everything you needed to take the game to a new level. How fun was it not to play a rock throwing african insurgent, fighting corrupt government forces in a varied and beautifully designed country in chaos. Who didn't enjoy playing a finnish policeman going after a "Car Stereo BMW" carthief trying to cross the russian border, handcuffing him after a long carchase and teaching him a lesson with the baton.

I think that some addons can be useful even without a whole mod (i.e nukes and zombies), but some things are not very useful. Here are some questions.

*Why would you create a NYPD S.W.A.T unit if you don't have an american environment to play in? Would they be stationed on Sahrani? Not very likely. An American environment would be needed first.
*Why would you create Palestinian insurgents without any Israeli soldiers to match them? Who are they going to fight... SLA?
*Why would you create anything that doesn't have a real purpose in terms of gameplay: environment, enemies or new functions?

In many cases I think that these things could be fixed by simple team work. Work together with someone that is creating similar addons, that way you could join your capabilities and maybe construct a COMPLETE mod like the ones mentioned above. As a mission maker I really enjoy feedback on my missions, and I'm pretty sure that you as addonmakers want feedback as well. My problem with addons though, is that I would never use a single "new sound AK47" or "retextured Marine" unless they came as part of a whole mod. It's simply not worth the effort in my opinion, and I think that many share my view. If you really want people to use your creations thay have to be either extremely inventive and useful or part of something larger.

Like I said in the beginning, I really love your work and enjoy trying out new addons, but many of them end up in the trash bin, just because they are not useful enough. Meaning: They don't really change or add anything to the quality of gameplay. With some thoughts spent on the actual usage of your addons I think the work you do would pay off much more.

Otherwise: Keep up your great work

Laggy
« Last Edit: 13 Jul 2008, 23:05:00 by laggy »
And I looked and beheld a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed with him.

Offline wcrvieira

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #1 on: 13 Jul 2008, 21:42:12 »
Now, this is a big and well put rant, and you focus in some important aspects where I totally agree with you. :)

What I do have some knowledge about is the usage (or lack of usage) of addons, and this is where I have some input. I think that alot of addons are way too small and limited and the use of them therefore become very specific and insignificant. Often they are also useless without other additional elements. I would say that alot of addons are useless without a fitting environment (island).

I agree with you. Many addons don't have a context where they can be fully employed. Islands are much harder to make, if I record correctly the OFP days, so that's why there aren't many out there compared with the addons.
This always was one of the problems of the community, the proliferation of tons of addons from which only a few are actually used in any mission/mod/addon cooperation.

Quote
*Why would you create a NYPD S.W.A.T unit if you don't have an american environment to play in? Would they be stationed on Sahrani? Not very likely. An American environment would be needed first.
*Why would you create Palestinian insurgents without any Israeli soldiers to match them? Who are they going to fight... SLA?
*Why would you create anything that doesn't have a real purpose in terms of gameplay: environment, enemies or new functions?

In many cases I think that these things could be fixed by simple team work. Work together with someone that is creating similar addons, that way you could join your capabilities and maybe construct a COMPLETE mod like the ones mentioned above.


Some of the examples you gave are like this, team work, but only one part was released. For instance the palestinians, they will have the israeli mod to play along with. But I got your point, and it is a valid one.

Quote
Like I said in the beginning, I really love your work and enjoy trying out new addons, but many of them end up in the trash bin, just because they are not useful enough. Meaning: They don't really change or add anything to the quality of gameplay. With some thoughts spent on the actual usage of your addons I think the work you do would pay off much more.

That is exactly how I think too, I only download useful addons. And one of the flaws I see in addons, beside being useless to me is to not have a demo mission or something to make me play with them.

Addons are made, useless to some useful to others, and most ignore them. There is no cooperation mainly with mission makers that could make demo missions for them, or with other addon makers that could complete their addons with a context. There is nothing we can do, there is subjectivity in an addon usefulness and what is useful to me can be useless to you (for instance, to me, nukes and zombies are useless without a nice mission to play with).
This is the main complaint I have against the addon making community, the lack of missions to play with the addons!

Offline laggy

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #2 on: 13 Jul 2008, 22:09:46 »
Hi again,

I would love to create an example mission for someones inventive and useful addon. A mod usually needs a whole campaign to be covered, but something similar to the "Nimitz aircraft carrier" or "MERCs Safe" in OFP would like you say benefit from a fun AND instructive example mission. If someone would like some help with that, just let me know and I'll do my best to make it happen.

Cheers

Laggy
And I looked and beheld a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed with him.

Offline wcrvieira

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #3 on: 13 Jul 2008, 22:22:13 »
That is the attitude to take indeed! :clap:

However, this must come from the addon makers, not the mission makers even though they both profit (addon gets more visibility and mission maker gets his 5 minutes of fame). Addon makers must want demo missions!

I would volunteer to help you out but I am already making the demo missions for Bushwars Mod :shhh:.

Offline laggy

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #4 on: 13 Jul 2008, 22:29:32 »
Thanks,

Well as the maker of an example mission you might get more exposure than when you upload your missions for beta testing, and it is a mission makers dream to have something special (a gameplay enhancing addon) to play with. To "Give them something they haven't seen before".

Cheers

Laggy
And I looked and beheld a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed with him.

Offline schuler

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #5 on: 13 Jul 2008, 22:30:56 »
Good points to be taken. I am kinda glad someone brought this up. Its not so much what the addon authors make as it is how mission writers use them.
  But on second thought the next addon we really, really need is hellfire,s on bicycle with training wheels, but it has to be at least 50MB,s of a d/l. and come in the color pink too! Oh and air to ground capabilities in case you hit a speed bump. And working bell on the handle bars.   Sorry couldn't help myself.!
Cheers schuler
Semper Fi

Offline laggy

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #6 on: 13 Jul 2008, 22:47:18 »
 :scratch: Ehhh... like I said...

If someone has anything worthwhile and trusts my capability and don't have time or interest in doing an example mission, just send me a message and I'll try to set some time off for it.

Laggy  :good:
« Last Edit: 13 Jul 2008, 22:49:24 by laggy »
And I looked and beheld a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed with him.

Offline Planck

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #7 on: 14 Jul 2008, 01:35:56 »
Quite posibly you should consider posting your offer in Experts for Hire, rather than here.    :cool2:


Planck
I know a little about a lot, and a lot about a little.

Offline Wolfrug

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Re: Some serious ideas and suggestions from a mission maker.
« Reply #8 on: 14 Jul 2008, 09:17:32 »
Quite possibly maybe you will soon have a chance anyway to explore this desire right here on OFPEC.  :cool2:

Wolfrug out.
"When 900 years YOU reach, look as good you will not!"